Friends of the Earth is running an ethical pension campaign to encourage investors to ask their providers if they invest in land grabbing activities. Emma Websdale spoke with campaigner Kirtana Chandrasekaran to discuss why it is such an important issue.
- Blue & Green Tomorrow
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22 April 2013
One of Canada’s biggest pension funds has teamed up with management of Australia’s largest pecan grower and processor, Stahmann Farms Enterprises.
In the last ten years, pension funds and other large investment funds have invested more and more in agricultural land as a part of their financial portfolios, contributing to increasing human rights violations and environmental destruction.
- Maryknoll
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19 October 2017
Banks, pension funds and insurers have been turning California's scarce water into enormous profits, leaving people with less to drink
Český fond půdy hopes to make 2,000 individual land acquisitions a year.
The Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act was first passed in 1980 by Congress to limit foreign control over US farmland. Obama now wants things changed.
- Costar Group
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03 April 2013
The sliding dollar is sweetening Australia's appeal as an agricultural investment destination ripe for overseas companies and fund managers, particularly from North America and Europe.
Global agricultural investor Nuveen Natural Capital has joined a growing pool of institutional fund managers targeting Australia’s burgeoning macadamia sector, after buying one of the country’s largest orchards
Through Macquarie Asset Management, PFJC will invest in farmland with various crops, such as wheat, beans, cotton and avocados on farmlands spread across eastern and western Australia.
- Asian Investor
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14 August 2023
Joint statement released by more than 60 civil society organisations against the role of pension funds and other financial instutions in land grabbing
Japanese translation of article of GRAIN, "Pension funds: key players in the global farmland grab"
It’s obvious that pension funds and other big-money managers are ‘getting’ the agri-land investment story.
- WorldCrops.com
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16 November 2011
The Financial Times reported this week that TIAA-CREF is developing a new “investment vehicle” that will bet the retirement funds of millions of American on the rising price of farmland around the world.
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is in advanced talks to buy a stake in Miner and commodity trader Glencore Plc's agricultural business, which has farming operations covering 270,000ha in Argentina, Australia, Kazakhstan, Russia and the Ukraine.
A new report uncovers how international pension funds, foreign investments and institutions are tearing down any future for rural communities in Northeastern Brazil.
An Australian company backed by Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board has purchased a grain farm in Yuna, Australia for about $30 million
Retirement fund and financial services firm TIAA-CREF is helping to meet the growing institutional demand for sustainably managed farmland, which can deliver stable returns above inflation.
- Institutional Investor
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24 December 2012
First State Super follows US and Canadian super funds with major investment in Australian almond plantations.
- Farm Weekly
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21 August 2015
Ospraie Management, the famous commodities hedge fund, is still long on farmland because it has actual cash flow. Many pension funds are now buying farmlands, reports Bloomberg.
- Bloomberg
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06 December 2012
Agriculture, long overlooked as a handy defensive investment space by fund managers more interested in infrastructure, commercial real estate and shopping centres, has become the focus of big spending activity of late.
Farmland is "an obvious no-brainer choice for most pension funds," according to Savills director of residential research Yolande Barnes.
For private equity houses, pension funds and family offices, the sprawling farms of sub Saharan Africa are the new land of plenty.
Giant US investment fund TIAA-CREF expects Australia's ageing farmers and a lack of sons and daughters willing to inherit their farms will lead to large numbers of properties hitting the market over the coming decade.
- Financial Review
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20 April 2015
A joint venture between Australia's Warakirri Asset Management and Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board has acquired a grain growing aggregation in Riverina, Australia for more than $55 million
European banks, pension funds and private equity funds have given financial assistance worth more than €450 million to Malaysian palm oil giant Sime Darby, responsible for environmental degradation and violations of national regulations in Liberia.
The New Zealand Superannuation Fund, which has bought up 21 local dairy farms as part of its push into rural land investment, is looking outside the dairy sector for its next foray, eyeing land used for beef and permanent crops and expansion into Australia.
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan portfolio now includes 130,000 acres of agricultural land globally, from apple orchards to row crop farmland and aquaculture assets, in Australia, Chile, Canada, the US and Portugal
Gobal fund manager Schroders is launching an Agricultural Land Fund, only months after closing its USD 6 billion Alternative Solutions Agriculture Fund due to excessive investor demand.
- Indonesia Investmenet Coordinating Board
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08 July 2008
Agriculture opportunities are accessed through land purchase (for production of foodstuffs or, more recently, biofuels), through equity investments in companies associated with this theme or – as is the case for £143m Ceres Agriculture fund – through pure derivative strategies.
- Financial Times
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23 February 2009
The fund is in the process of leasing 50,000 hectares of land in Tanzania which will be complete by the end of this year and will mainly be for rice production.